Web Development: How to Make a Mood Board Online (With Mood Board Design Ideas)

How to Make a Mood Board Online (With Mood Board Design Ideas)

So, you want to create your own mood board online! It's much easier than you imagine when you use the Moodboard Creator from Placeit.

Moodboard Template with Different Size Papers

Placeit provides you not only with this handy tool to help you make a moodboard online quickly and easily, but also with tons of amazing moodboard templates to suit a range of tastes, styles, and purposes.

Follow along with us over on our Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel:

What Is a Mood Board?

Before we dive into the meat of this article, let's first define what a mood board is. A mood board is a collection of images, text, and sometimes objects mounted on a physical or digital board.

Mood boards are a communication tool used by designers of all types to clarify, inspire, evoke, or visually illustrate an idea, a style, a feeling, or a topic, but can be equally useful for non-designers for the very same reasons.

Now that you know what a mood board is, let's get into how to create a moodboard online in five simple steps.

How to Make a Moodboard Online

1. Get Clear About What You Want to Achieve With Your Moodboard

To do so, finish this sentence: My mood board should communicate ...
For this example, my sentence is: My mood board should communicate my personality and style as a starting point for my interior designer.
Next, choose two or three keywords that can help you describe the message you're trying to communicate.
For this example, I'll choose: Comfortable, Coastal, Bright

2. Gather Materials

Think about the subject of your mood board. Use your five senses to imagine what you'd like your subject to look, feel, taste, smell, and sound like.
Collect images and objects that represent your sensory experience of your subject.
These images, texts, and objects when put together will tell a story that shows your idea, style, and feeling about your chosen subject.
Review your materials. Look at the subject matter and the patterns, textures, and colours in your materials. Does the story each element tells make sense in terms of the story you're trying to tell? Do they all support your keywords? If not, you either need to revise your keywords or let go of the dissonant images.

3. Go to Placeit.net > Mockups > Stationery > Mood Boards

Look though the mood board examples until you find a layout you like. Click on it to open the digital mood board generator.

4. Customise Your Moodboard Template

Now that you have your mood board generator open, note how many image placeholders are available to you. You probably have more images than image placeholders. This means you have to be selective about the images you upload. Remember mood boards don't have to have tons of images to be effective. What's important is that your board tells a clear and compelling story. You can do this with just one image as well as you can with ten images.

Reread the sentence and keywords you created in step one, and whittle your images down to remove redundant images or images that do not contribute to the story you are trying to tell.
When you are done, start on the left side of the template and upload your images. You may need to play around with the image sequence to get the look you are happy with.

Now, go to the top of the controls on the left and add text if you want to. For example, you can use the keywords I used in step one.

Now move to the right side of the template and add your colour scheme. This will help to pull your composition together and reinforce the mood.
I'll leave the Paper Colour settings at their default white because I prefer white borders around my photos.

5. Download Your Design

Once you’ve completed your customisations and are satisfied with your design, hit the download button at the top of the screen.

This will take you to the download page, where you have two options for purchasing your mood board.
You can either pay a single fee for your mood board design or sign up for a monthly or yearly subscription that offers you unlimited downloads of all Placeit's designs, mockups, logos, videos, and gaming templates.

Here is the mood board I created.

Mood Board Design

And here are a few other layouts I tried using the same theme and photos.

This will give you some idea of how versatile the Placeit mood board maker is.

The digital mood board style you choose will depend on your specific taste and/or need.

Now that you know how to create a moodboard online, let's look at some of the terrific mood board templates you can find at Placeit.

Mood Board Design Ideas

Mood Board Maker Featuring Beachy Souvenirs

If you're creating a mood board with a beach theme, this is the perfect mood board template for you. You can change the background and paint swatch colours as needed, but you only have room for one image, so make it count.

Aesthetic Moodboard Maker Featuring a Background With Leaves

Just because you've decided to create your own mood board online, it doesn't mean that you can't simulate the textures and dimensions of a handmade mood board. This template is all about the gorgeous tactility of the crumpled paper in the middle of the board where you will place your central image.

Moodboard Template With Different Size Papers

With seven image placeholders, this mood board design offers plenty of space for you to express yourself. Just use the mood board creator to upload your images and then add a background colour when you're done.

Mood Board Design With Instant Pictures and Papers

Create your own mood board online with this wonderful layout. It offers image placeholders of different sizes for variety and visual interest.

Digital Mood Board Polaroid Surrounded by Flowers

How awesome is this digital mood board template? It features wonderful textures, dried flowers, and leaves, all surrounding your all-important image, which is presented in a polaroid frame.

Mood Board Examples Featuring Polaroid Frame

Creating a moodboard online has never been easier than with the moodboard generator and Placeit templates like this one. It offers five image placeholders and an easy image upload button so that you can customise the template in no time at all.

Inspiration Mood Board With Several Pictures

This moodboard template is an excellent choice for those who want to showcase their entire colour palette for a project as it provides a dedicated colour swatch holder alongside four images.

Moodboard Example Featuring Copper Ornaments

This is an excellent inspiration mood board design for photographers. Build your theme around the wonderful bronze accessories, and then colour your background with complementary colours that support your theme.

Moodboard Generator Featuring Several Taped Pictures

Want to bring the authentic feel of a handmade moodboard to your digital mood board? Then this is the template for you with its bits of tape and thumbtacks. Just upload your images and change your background colour, and your template is ready to download.

Online Mood Board Creator Featuring Pictures and Dry Leaves

How darling is this moodboard example? Upload one outstanding image and then change the colours of the paint swatch and background to reinforce your theme.

Moodboard Maker Featuring Three Coloured Papers

Here's another inspiration mood board template that provides you with a dedicated colour swatch for showcasing the colours you want to use in your project. There are three image placeholders for your stand-out images, and you can change the background colour as needed.

Mood Board Generator Featuring Plants and Other Elements

Many mood board creators believe that they need tons of images to get their point across, but really a mood board can be as effective with one image as with ten. What's important is that the images, objects, and colours you use tell the story you want to tell.

Online Mood Board Creator Featuring Lines and Textures

When you use just two images for your image mood board, it's important that the other elements in your composition pull their weight and support the image with texture, colour, and shape. That's exactly what you get when you select this moodboard template.

Mood Board Examples Featuring Copper Coloured Ornaments

This image had me at bronzed pineapple, but I also love the bronzed leaf and lamp. They make a terrific look for this strong image arrangement.

Mood Board Online Featuring a Plain Background

When you make a moodboard online, you need to match the template to the number of images you want to include. Sometimes you may end up with more images than image placeholders, and when that happens, you can opt to reduce your images to those which are absolutely essential to telling the story you want to tell.

Inspiration Mood Board With Several Taped Pictures

If you like the messy, spontaneous look of handmade mood boards, you'll love this digital mood board design with its peeling tape and thumbtacks. A great template when you want to increase that sense of the tactile.

Digital Mood Board Featuring Coloured Paper

From the spontaneous to the controlled, digital mood boards at Placeit come in all shapes. So if you are attracted to a more organised mood board, this is the template for you.

Mood Board Template Two Papers and iPhone X

One of the great things about digital mood boards is that you can include various objects easily, like the leaves and iPhone in this mood board example. The leaves won't die and fall off, and you don't have to surrender your iPhone to the process. Now that's pretty awesome.

Mood Board Design With Rose and Leaves

Don't you just love this wonderful mood board template with its bronzed leaves and rose? Upload your images and then choose a complementary colour for your background that will make your mood board sing.

Moodboard Generator With Several Pictures Taped to a Surface

Mood Board Design of Several Pictures Taped to a Surface

When you want to create a moodboard online, there is no better tool than the Placeit online mood board creator. Not only is it easy to use, but it also provides you with tons of gorgeous templates like this one that are super easy to use.

Choose Your Digital Mood Board Template Today

Now that you know how to make a moodboard online, head on over to Placeit, choose your favourite from the terrific mood board templates available, and make your own unique mood board today.

And if you are interested in other terrific resources from Placeit, check out these articles below: